The Second Trimester

Days before finding out we were having a boy, I officially entered the second trimester. Everyone says this is the easiest trimester. I was really hoping they were right.

They... kind of were.

I got a little bit of my energy back, but honestly not much. The constant nausea had mostly disappeared, which felt like a miracle, but the exhaustion never really left. (Spoiler alert... it still hasn't.)

Looking back now, the second trimester feels like a blur. But it was also one of the most exciting parts of pregnancy. This is when pregnancy goes from something you know is happening to something you can actually feel.

Around 18 weeks, I started feeling what everyone calls the "flutters." Before then, I had asked every pregnant woman and mom I knew what flutters felt like. Every answer was something along the lines of, "Oh, you'll just know."

I hated that answer.

Give me an actual description!

So let me try to do better for anyone reading this who's still waiting for that first little movement. If you've ever had heart palpitations, it feels almost exactly like that... except in your uterus. If you've never had heart palpitations, imagine a tiny muscle twitch that comes out of nowhere. It isn't painful, and it isn't uncomfortable. It just feels... strange.

Wonderful, but strange.

At 19 weeks, those tiny flutters became stronger, and we had our anatomy scan.

That appointment was emotional in a way I wasn't prepared for.

Seeing him again after several weeks was surreal. He had grown so much. He had little fingers, little toes, and he was moving all over the place. And he definitely wasn't shy about showing us Mr. Winky.

For the first time, I wasn't just imagining the little movements I'd been feeling. I could actually watch him kick and wiggle while I felt those same movements inside me. It connected everything in a way I can't really explain.

I cried, of course.

By that point I'd spent so many years wondering if this day would ever come that I still couldn't fully believe it was real. There he was... on the screen... perfectly content, moving around without a care in the world.

I had always hoped everything would be okay.

But after that appointment, hope started turning into belief.

For the first time, I let myself think, "I think we're actually going to get to bring this baby home."

Then came 20 weeks.

That was when Hubs finally got to feel him move.

My husband isn't an overly emotional person. Honestly, before pregnancy, neither was I.

But the moment he felt that tiny little kick, everything changed. He wrapped his arms around my belly, laid his head against it, and cried.

He hugged us so tightly I actually had to tell him to ease up because he was squeezing my belly.

I don't think he was just feeling a kick.

I think he was feeling years of heartache, infertility, hope, fear, and unanswered prayers finally becoming real.

For both of us, the second trimester wasn't just about getting through pregnancy anymore.

It was the moment we stopped wondering if we were going to become parents...

...and started believing we actually would.